"A place where people can come and be"
Coming soon – Greenhouse Coffee. It’s just to the right of the BP/Dairy Queen.
They’re hiring now and planning to be open the third week of September.
I spoke with Camille Phillips several weeks ago and asked what her inspiration was. Her response was thrilling – she wanted the challenge, wanted to take the things the loves to do – coffee, baking, serving – and bring them all together. Camille was an Air Force nurse, then a nurse in Charlottesville and now the owner/proprietor of Crozet’s newest coffee shop/cafe.
Her passion is infectious.
A very interesting comment she made was that "as many people asked for wireless as those who asked for me to not have wireless." And she may be on to something. This could be a big shift in the away from the expected coffee shop atmosphere – and perhaps a return to the "traditional" coffee shop – where people come to engage and discuss rather than work on their laptops. If she does make this decision, I think she may be on to something.
From the Wall Street Journal:
But in New York, the trend is accelerating among independents. At Cocoa Bar locations in Brooklyn and on the Manhattan’s Lower East Side, a five-month-old rule forbids laptops after 8 on Friday and Saturday nights. At Espresso 77 in Jackson Heights, Queens, owners covered three of five electric outlets six months ago after its loosely enforced laptop-use restrictions failed to encourage turnover. At two of three Café Grumpy locations — one in Brooklyn and the other in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood — laptops are never welcome.
Laptop backlash poses particular difficulties for people without offices, says Leah Meyerhoff, 29, a film director and free-lancer. She long has used coffee shops to interview cast and crew and to work on pre-production. Now, she says, "it’s a constant search for places with the Internet where I can sit and focus without being frowned upon."
As much as I want to develop this into a full-fledged review/introduction to Greenhouse Coffee, I thought that sharing some of my notes would help to convey a good first impression of the space/idea/concept/plan:
What’s Greenhouse Coffee going to be?
– Coffee bar, lunch, cafe homebaked goods, desserts
– Fenced in play space for kids
– The feel of Cville Coffee (she worked at Cville Coffee part-time for a year)- separate spaces for kids and adults
– Picnic tables
– Outdoor section – parties, tents
– "Gardening is one of my passions"
– Natural meet with friends, kids,
– Welcome.
– Ecologically friendly, sociologically aware.
– Energy efficient – tried to save everything
As the other Crozet coffee shops are finding, the hours of operation are expected to be a bit fluid until traffic is assessed. When we spoke, Camille was leaning towards 6:15 am to 6pm.
I know this – I’ll be stopping by as I’m walking to and from Crozet Elementary this school year.
*Editor’s note: this story is much shorter than I intended it to be; I just don’t have the time to translate all my notes into the long story I meant to write.
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